Saturday, October 18, 2014

The political sects of Jesus' day

29th
Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew
22:15-21

The
Pharisees sent their disciples to Jesus, with the Herodians, saying…

In the Sunday Gospel of the Novus Ordo, we hear the question of the lawfulness of the tax put
to Jesus by the Pharisees together with the Herodians. Not unlike today, there
is much politicking at work behind the scenes.

Understanding the politic sects among the Jews of Jesus’ day
will be of the greatest advantage in grasping what is at stake in this simple
question: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or
not?We follow the statement of St.
Jerome: “The prime virtue in one who gives an answer is to know that mind of
him who asks the question.”

Status
Quaestionis – The Debate in Jesus’ day

As Judaea was a province of the Roman empire, the people of
that land were required to pay a tax to the Caesar of one didrachma or two denarii.
Regarding whether or not it were lawful for Caesar to levy this tax, let us
consider both sides.

Cornelius a Lapide puts the case well:

“This was a doubtful question.
For prima facie, the negative, that
the Jews were not justly subject to the Romans, would seem the more correct.
For Pompey, who first reduced the Jews under the Roman yoke, was only called in
by Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, the grandsons of Simon the high priest, to decide
between them which of the two was to succeed to the Jewish sovereignty and
high-priesthood. By what right then did Pompey pass them over, and transfer the
sovereign power over Judea to the Romans?

“And yet, if we examine what
happened more carefully, we shall perceive that the contrary proposition is the
more probable, namely, that Pompey seized upon Judea by the right of a just
war. For when Pompey had justly decided in favor of Hyrcanus, as being the
elder, his younger brother, Aristobolus, attacked Jerusalem, and filled it with
his soldiers, who fought against both Pompey and Hyrcanus. Then Pompey took
Jerusalem by storm, and made it subject, with the consent of Hyrcanus, to the
Roman yoke. Hyrcanus being unable to keep it by himself, delivered it to
Pompey, with the consent of the elders and nobles of the Jews, who preferred to
be subject to the Romans rather than to Hyrcanus and Aristobolus. For they saw
that without the Romans, the Jewish state would be annihilated by schisms and
seditions.”

And, therefore, as the Romans had come to possession of the
land and Caesar guaranteed the safety of the people through the presence of his
soldiers in the cities, it was right both for Caesar to demand and the people
to pay the tax.

However, the question of whether such tax was lawfully paid,
placed our Savior between two horns of a dilemma. Indeed, if he answered that
the tax was to be paid, he would seem to be a traitor to his own people.
However, if he stated that the tax was unlawful, he would be denounced as a
rival to Caesar. Thus, the difficulty.

The insurrection
of Judas of Galilee

Further, Father Cornelius a Lapide relates that there was a
certain Judas of Galilee about this time who had rebelled against the Empire
and taught that it was not lawful for the Jews to be subject to the Romans or
to pay them taxes.

This Judas of Galilee and his followers held that no one was
to be called “Lord” or “Father” excepting God in heaven, and that therefore
Caesar was not so to be honored. Further, they held that those who paid tithe
to the Temple ought not to pay further to Caesar.

As our Savior and his Apostles were from Galilee, they were
commonly thought to share in the teachings of this sect. All the more as our
Lord himself spoke, in some places, similarly; i.e. regarding calling no man “father”
or “teacher”.

For this reason, the Pharisees thought that Jesus would side
against the Romans and so be condemned as a rebel.

The
sect of the Herodians – for Caesar

The Herodians held that Herod of Ascalon, who had
slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem and was father to Herod Antipas, was the
Messiah of the Jews. Herod had indeed attempted to take this title to himself. St.
Jerome tells us that Herod had encouraged the flattery of this sect, and
further that it was for this reason that he tried to kill the Christ Child – as
he would suffer no opposition to his claim to be the Messiah. Further, it was
in his pride as an attempt to set himself up as the Christ, that Herod had
build the magnificent temple for the Jews, which Josephus states rivaled even
that of Solomon (Lib. Ant. 15 c.14).

As Herod had been set up as King by the Romans, the
Herodians favored paying the tax to Caesar; therefore, many considered them to
be traitors to their own people.

The sect
of Pharisees – against Caesar

The Pharisees, on the other hand, did not accept Herod as
the Messiah, but resented the Roman rule. To this end, they insisted that the
Law of Moses gave a divine right of Jewish liberty and home rule.

The Jews held themselves aloof from the Gentiles, and many
thought that the Chosen People ought not to be subject to idolaters. It was the
opinion of many of them that, as God was their Master to whom they paid tithes,
Caesar could not lawfully either demand or receive tithes from them.

The Pharisees, who especially emphasized this separation of
the chosen from the profane and the clean from the unclean, therefore rejected
the rule of Caesar – though not in so violent or public a manner as did the Zealots.

The
sect of the Sadducees --

For the sake of completeness, we turn to St. Jerome’s words
regarding the history and doctrine of the Sadducees (who were the other major
sect of the time).

“There was Dositheus, prince of
the Samaritans, who rejected the prophets. There were the Sadducees, sprung
from his root, who went on to deny the resurrection of the flesh.”

How
Jesus rose above the sects

Notice that the Pharisees put the question of the tax not in
terms of justice but rather of piety. For they do not ask, “Are we bound to pay the tax?” but “Is it lawful…?”. Our Savior, therefore,
refuses to discuss whether the Romans had rightfully taken possession of the
land, but instead turns the dilemma to a question of religion and piety.

Render
therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that
are God’s.

The coin which was made to the image of Caesar is Caesar’s,
but the man holding the coin who was himself made in the image of God is God’s.
Thus, the malice of the Pharisees is confounded, for they wished to clean only
the outside of the dish, leaving the soul of a man filthy in sin. But our Lord
came to purify what is interior to man, to free him from sin, and to make him
to be a true child of God.

1 comments:

Great to see you're posting again Father! Interesting to find out how the Roman's came to be there in the first place. I wonder if the Anglican Church was aware of that history when they asked all-and-sundry, including Richard Dawkins, who the next Archbishop of Canterbury should be.